Get ready for what developer Crytek is calling the biggest Hunt: Showdown event yet, as “Serpent Moon” is now live. The event is centered around Viper, a new evolving Legendary Hunter that you can evolve with event points earned by capturing and sacrificing deadly snakes now slithering around the map. There are also new weapon variants, storyline content to catch up on, and some exclusive event DLC. You can check out a trailer for the Serpent Moon event, below.

　　Here’s everything you need to know about Hunt: Showdown’s Serpent Moon event…

　　The Serpent Moon Live Event brings a supernatural infestation of snakes to the bayou. Deadly serpents appear in snake dens throughout the bayou, and it's down to you to capture snakes and sacrifice them on altars. However, these snakes will attack you if you make too much noise on your approach, so you must balance the reward of greater event points, and greater rewards, for looting and sacrificing snakes against a lower amount of event points for simply destroying them.

　　To help you, you can equip three Event Traits. "Beastface" reduces the reaction range of snakes allowing you to get closer. "Serpent" increases the distance at which snake sacrifices can be made, and "Poison Sense" will identify nearby poisoned players when using Dark Sight. You will also be rewarded for investigating event clues and rifts, eliminating bosses and looting Hunter corpses.

　　Introducing Viper

　　Everyone who join the "Serpent Moon" event will be able to play with our new Legendary Hunter, "Viper." In a first for Hunt, this unique character will visually evolve through different stages as players progress. The number of stages Viper will evolve through depends on your chosen pathway. A new battle pass system – "The Gilded Path" – will enable you to choose from free, standard, and premium pathways.

　　The free option offers two stages of Viper's progression, plus the opportunity to earn weapons and Blood Bonds during the event. The standard Gilded Path battle pass provides everything in the free tier, four stages of Viper's evolution to experience, more weapons and rewards to unlock, and Blood Bond cashback. The premium Gilded Path tier offers everything from the standard Gilded Path option plus 3000 Event points to speed up progress. Whichever pathway you choose, you can access two new weapons: the Romero 77 Alamo "Coluber" shotgun and the "Snakeshot" Sparks Pistol!

　　Free Path

　　Legendary Hunter – The Viper, Stage 1Chary’s Implied Contract – 2 hour booster1x Instance of Legendary Alert Trip Mine – Miner’s SongRomero 77 Alamo UnlockLegendary Hunter – The Viper, Stage 2Sparks Pistol UnlockLegendary Caldwell Conversion Chain Pistol – AntoshaChary’s Implied Contract – 2 hour booster50 BloodbondsLegendary Dynamite Bundle – Red Dog100 BloodbondsLegendary Vetterli 71 Silencer – LucidusGilded Path

　　Everything included in the Free Path, plus…Legendary Antidote Shot – Snake Oil Ward3x Instance of Legendary Romero 77 Alamo – ColuberLegendary Berthier Mle 92 – Earthshine3x Instance of Legendary Sparks Pistol – SnakeshotLegendary Romer 77 Alamo – ColuberChary’s Fixed Contract – 24 hour booster50 Bloodbonds5x Instance of Legendary Dynamite Bundle – Red DogLegendary Sparks Pistol – Snakeshot50 Bloodbonds3x Instance of Legendary Vetterli 71 Silencer – Lucidus100 BloodbondsLegendary Hunter – The Viper, Stage 37x Instance of Legendary Antidote Shot – Snake Oil Ward100 BloodbondsLegendary Winfield M1873 Swift – Slither200 Bloodbonds500 BloodbondsLegendary Hunter – The Viper, Stage 4New Weapon Variants

　　Romero 77 Alamo

　　The Alamo is a Romero 77 shotgun with an external magazine and reloading device. It holds up to five shells at a time, including the one in the chamber. The new loading device allows for a more seamless reload, turning the weapon into a low-cost repeating shotgun.

　　Sparks Pistol

　　A Sparks LRR cut down to be a small handgun, the Sparks Pistol delivers equally powerful shots over short to medium ranges. Though small and easy to carry, it loses its power drastically over longer distances, and has an extremely strong recoil because of the missing stock.

　　Crytek will also be offering a couple of Serpent Moon DLC packs, The Prescient Night and They Came from Salem, which each offer a Legendary Hunter and three weapons.

　　Hunt: Showdown is available on PC, Xbox One, and PS4, and playable via backward compatibility on Xbox Series X/S and PS5. The Serpent Moon event will run from today (July 27) until September 26.